HBO’s Telemarketers reveals a foil to responsible professional fundraising
Premiered on HBO in August, the docuseries Telemarketers has reached critical and popular acclaim, shocking audiences with an investigative look into fraudulent for-profit telemarketer fundraising companies hosted by two loveable amateur investigators who themselves once worked for one of those very companies.
With Warner Bros. Discovery reporting in September that the three-episode series garnered an average of nearly 2 million viewers per episode, the show reveals an informative foil to our work as legitimate professional fundraisers and what we’re up against in doing our jobs right and building trust among our donors and the public.
Massive fraud and unethical tactics in Telemarketers
Telemarketers is the culmination of years of on-and-off research by Sam Lipman-Stern and Pat Pespas, starting with an insider look at their time as coworkers at Civic Development Group (CDG). CDG operated a for-profit telemarketing fundraising operation ostensibly on behalf of dozens of nonprofit organizations, primarily Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) organizations. The reality was much less savory: CDG telemarketers, many with criminal records and few other employment options, push unwitting donors with manipulative, abusive sales tactics. Through meticulous sales scripts, they misrepresent themselves as directly representative of the “beneficiary” nonprofit while CDG actually pockets 90% of revenue.
Eventually, a Federal Trade Commission investigation shut CDG down, penalizing its ownership (who had grown massively wealthy off the scheme) to the tune of $18.8 million dollars – the largest-ever FTC consumer protection penalty of its kind.
But Lipman-Stern and Pespas, still investigating years after CDG’s 2010 shutdown, find that the same sort of aggressive, likely fraudulent, for-profit telemarketing schemes have continued up to today and are getting increasingly sophisticated. Technological advancements in responsive robocalling, a shift to work in lower-regulation PAC fundraising, and an atmosphere with only infrequent penalties for bad actors mean this type of operation is likely more lucrative than ever.
Reflecting as a professional fundraiser
We’ve all received unsolicited calls from pushy telemarketers – fundraising or otherwise – and, clearly, it’s an experience shared by the multitude of angry and exasperated members of the public featured in Telemarketers through sound clips. More specific to professional nonprofit fundraisers, you, like me, may also be used to the tension that comes over some people’s faces when you say “I work as a professional fundraiser,” as if we will “hit them up” right then and there.
According to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (also a source interviewed for the docuseries), only about 20% of Americans have high trust in nonprofit organizations. I don’t think it’s too wild a hypothesis that the fraudulent operations unveiled in Telemarketers is a significant part of bringing that public trust down over the years.
Operating a two-person fundraising shop for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, I reflect on the paltry few phone calls I make out to my donor base compared to the truly massive volume done by telemarketing “fundraising” operations in the film. The docuseries describes some fraudulent telemarketing firms calling the same people monthly, following lists with tens of thousands of names nationwide – and always aggressively. By volume, this is a big part of how the public interacts with fundraising in their everyday lives.
And, of course, beyond the pure volume tactics displayed in Telemarketers, their exploitative sales scripts, misrepresentation of the nonprofits they allegedly benefit, and complete lack of transparency in operations and funding outcomes (all for the purpose of personal enrichment) are antithetical to the ethical standards we hold ourselves to as members of AFP.
Responding in our day-to-day work
Telemarketers, beyond its shock and entertainment value for HBO streaming, can serve as a helpful foil—a reminder of what ethical, responsible fundraising isn't. If companies like CDG are pulling down trust in nonprofits, how do we reverse the trend?
I’ll take my experience watching Telemarketers forward into my professional life as a bellwether for practices to scrutinize and systems to change. When a “status quo” fundraising practice, a well-intentioned but misinformed piece of advice from a board member, or a “Top 10” blog post promising instant fundraising results starts to feel a little too much like CDG’s exploitative practices, I’ll know to be careful.
Furthermore, I’ll move forward with a renewed focus on how important it is to show my organization’s impact to donors and the public, to be transparent with finances, and to “walk the walk” of connecting the public with causes that provide authentic, direct value to our community.
